CHART OF THE DAY: NHL Looks To Reverse Trend By Moving Teams North

There has been speculation for a while that the NHL-owned Phoenix Coyotes would be moving back to Winnipeg.

There are even reports (denied by the NHL) that the league will announce the move following the playoffs.

The move would be significant, because it would mark the first time since Ottawa was awarded an expansion franchise for the 1992-93 season that the number of teams in Canada increased. At that point, Canada was home to eight NHL teams. Three years later, the Quebec Nordiques moved to Denver. A year after that, Winnipeg lost the Jets to Phoenix.

If the Coyotes do move to Winnipeg, next season will mark just the second since NHL-WHA merger in 1979 that the percentage of NHL teams from Canada increased over their previous year. Here is how the make-up of the NHL has changed since the inaugural season in 1917-18.